Black History Month: Inspiration from past lives

Alison Dawkins considers some possibilities for investigations for this year’s Black History Month.

Diversifying book choice: the power of being seen!

Seeing yourself reflected on the pages of a book can be a startling experience. Consider how these experiences occur and why they matter so much in...

Those who can, teach: a heartfelt thank you

As the end-of-the-year approaches, and the policy documents keep coming in, we take a moment to pause and simply say thank you.

A field guide to reading fluency: a reader's digest of our work to date

Martin Galway offers a comprehensive overview of reading fluency and some extensive pointers to further reading.

Raising writing standards in Years 4 and 5

Martin Galway and Jane Andrews share insights from the development and roll out of a new writing programme that focuses on developing confident...

Is there such a thing as ‘catching up’/getting ‘back on track’ with pleasure for reading? Ways to bring a story alive in KS1

Bringing story to life through a modern classic picture book.

An introduction to ESSENTIALspelling

Michelle Nicholson introduces ESSENTIALspelling, an exciting new resource from Herts for Learning.

Come outside! Taking learning outdoors

Dip into a host of activities for outdoor learning.

Rosenshine’s principles of instruction applied to the teaching of spelling

This is a blog packed with practical activities and ideas to support with spelling instruction, and linked to Rosenshine’s principles of instruction.

Planning for reading and writing with a common literary focus

Once you start looking at subjects and themes across your favourite books, this type of planning becomes compulsive. Try these ‘wolfie’ ideas to get...